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American Association Electronic Voice Phenomena American Association Electronic Voice Phenomena Published by Tom and Lisa Butler, 3415 Socrates Drive, Reno NV 89512, USA, [email protected], aaevp.com Volume 21 Number 4 AA-EVP NEWS Winter 2003 From Our Viewpoint World events are very unpredictable these days. If we son‘s heart has stopped, he is not breathing and his brain think about it, this is often the case, as we never really activity is nil” know what tomorrow will bring. One thing that is of Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a great comfort to most of the members of the AA-EVP is prospective study in the Netherlands was published in the knowledge that we don’t die. Now we are finding that volume number 358 of The Lancet. The Lancet is one of more people are joining the ranks of the AA-EVP who the world’s most respected medical journals and publica- share our belief in survival. Some of these people, you tion of this article caused quite an uproar in the medical may be surprised to know, are respected scientists. community. The article cites a study by Dr. Pim van In the last couple of years we have seen an increase of Lommel and colleagues of Rijnstate Hospital in Arnhem. the public interest in mediums and survival, due in a large The results showed that medical factors could not account part to the success of TV programs like that of John Ed- for the occurrence of NDEs. Although all patients had ward and James Van Praagh. These mediums bring in been clinically dead, most did not have an NDE. The re- messages that are very evidential and millions more peo- searchers noted that, “If purely physiological factors had ple today are learning about survival through their televi- caused the NDE, most of our patients should have had this sion sets then were just two years ago. experience.” The paper states that induced NDE experi- Dr. Gary Schwartz, at the Human Energy Systems La- ences are not identical to spontaneous NDE experiences. boratory in Tucson, Arizona conducted a series of exper- It questions, “How can clear consciousness outside one’s iments to test the validity of mediumship. Edward and body be experienced at the moment that the brain no long- Van Praagh were two of the mediums who were tested. er functions during a period of clinical death with flat Schwartz's experiments were conducted using carefully EEG?” designed protocols and provided credible evidence for A National Science Foundation report based on inter- survival. As you might expect, they created considerable views with 1,574 people across the country found wide- controversy, especially with the skeptical press. spread and increasing belief in what it terms, “pseudosci- The International Association for Near-Death Studies ence.” It also cited several other polls with similar con- held their Fourth Esalen conference on Survival of Bodily clusions. Among those was a Gallup survey last year that Death, in May of 2002. Researchers from the fields of showed belief in ghosts, haunted houses, witches and the psychiatry, anthropology, psychology and physics con- ability to communicate with the dead, all increased by cluded that three areas of research provided strong evi- double-digit percentage points in the past decade alone. dence for survival. Near Death Experiences (NDE) was at Belief in ghosts and haunted houses is now around 40 the top of the list. Reasons sited were, accurate observa- percent, and communicating with the dead is nearing 30 tions of medical operating procedures made by clinically percent. Eight of 13 such phenomena included in the Gal- dead patients, reported encounters with deceased persons lup report showed significant increases and only the belief even though the experiencer did not know the person was in devil possession declined. The Science Foundation dead and accurate reports by blind experiencers. Reincar- survey showed that nation was cited as a strong proof for survival based on sixty-percent of the examples, such as children accurately recounting previous people surveyed be- lives and birthmarks corresponding to lethal wounds expe- lieved that some peo- rienced in a previous lifetime. Mediumship was also not- ple possess psychic ed as strong proof of survival because of the veridical powers or ESP. messages often delivered by mediums. Those of us who Dr. Sam Parnia is one of two doctors from Southampton are doing research in General Hospital in England who has been studying EVP and ITC, not NDEs. The work is very significant in that it shows that a only have the ad- group of people who were clinically dead had well- vantage of knowing that consciousness survives but we structured, lucid thought processes with reasoning and also get to hear and see our loved ones. For instance, in memory formation, even though their brains were shown our last Video ITC experiment, we asked for the first time not to be functioning. Parnia was quoted as saying, “The to have a relative appear. We called on Tom’s father and possibility is certainly there to suggest that consciousness, asked him to appear in the middle of a frame. Amazing or the soul, keeps thinking and reasoning even if a per- enough, he came Continued Page 8 Founded in 1982 by Sarah Estep to Provide Objective Evidence That We Survive Death in an Individual Conscious State. Volume 21, Number 4, Page 2 AA-EVP NEWS Winter 2003 Larry Dean and Patricia Begley: ITC pear in their experiments. Larry and Patricia have only Author, Larry Dean has been working on a book on In- been working with video ITC for a few short months, but strumental TransCommunications (ITC). Larry says that following that advice, they have received many images of he was interested in spiritual pursuits at a very young age people whom they have asked to appear in their video when others were out playing sports. Later in his life he frames. For instance, they have collected images of Patri- devoted most of his time to doing presentations and teach- cia’s father and mother and also the image of Patricia’s Aunt Ethel, which is shown here. ing classes on the development of psychic abilities and healing. Although Larry is naturally clairaudient and Signs and Messages from Cathy clairvoyant, it was only after he stopped teaching these By Martha Copeland classes that he took time to develop his own trance work. A couple of weeks ago, my sister, Ginny, and I were do- Larry is a deep trance channel. His ITC partner, Patricia ing a recording session when she picked up my daughter’s Begley facilitates and records the sessions. It is generally voice while I was out of the room. Cathy could be heard only through her doing this, and the recordings she makes, saying, “Mama, I have Muffin.” This was followed by that Larry knows what has taken place while he has been the sound of a dog. Muffin, was her dog of seventeen in trance. Many years ago the two were told by their main years. She died shortly after Cathy. guide, Choi, that their spirit team was working with them Yesterday, October 7, 2002, I was on the computer and to establish Video ITC contacts. received another message from Cathy saying, “I can’t Larry and Patricia worked find Fluffy.” Fluffy was a cat we had about fifteen years together on sitting for physical ago, until having to give him to a good home before being phenomena for many years. transferred overseas. Like any animal lover, we planned They were excited and encour- to take him with us. However, I accidentally ran over aged by the ITC results of the Fluffy just before our departure date, so he was unable to Harsch-Fischbachs, and were make the long journey. Alas, Fluffy survived and recov- even able to sit in on some of ered, and lived an active life. the Scole Experimental Group Many of my meditations and dreams are with Cathy. sessions. They continued to We are walking in a meadow, surrounded by our animals, sit with a group and did expe- (some are animals I had loved as a child—even before rience limited physical phe- Cathy’s time). I had not realized, until after her last mes- nomena, but did not achieve sage, that I had not seen Fluffy. successful television or Video When I tried to save the recording, the entire program ITC contacts. Larry talks went blank, and I thought I had lost it. Disappointed and about the years that they sat sad, I decided to get out of the house for a couple of around looking at dots on television screens and feature- hours. Upon returning, I noticed Cathy’s bedroom door less video experiments. was ajar. The door is always closed! Entering into her Larry made contact with the two of us over a year ago room, I noticed a piece of paper was lying on the floor in regarding the ITC book he is working on. We spoke with front of the doorway. The note was in Cathy’s handwrit- Larry numerous times on the phone and found a common ing and read, “I smile because I love U, I love U because bond and interest in his enthusiasm for ITC. Since we had U care (then a picture of a smiley face) U care to make me also begun work on a book on EVP and ITC in late 2002, happy & always be there!” we were able to send Larry the two chapters on Video ITC Checking around with family members and friends of that describe how to conduct an experiment and some of Cathy, I found that no one else had been in my house.
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